To right-thinking people "dharma" and "satya" are interchangeable words and their goal is -- as it has always been -- to rise higher so as to realize Him who alone is the truth. For them there is no pursuit higher than that of practicing truth in thought, word and deed.

Kim Satyam? (What is truth?)

Bhutahitam! (Truth or truthfulness is what is spoken for the well-being of all living beings.)

Ko Dharmah? (What is Dharma?)

Abhimanto yah sistanam nija kulinam! (Dharma is that which is determined by the elders and by learned people.)

According to Sri Chandarsekharendra Saraswati, dharma is our only protection. It is dharma alone that gives man happiness. There need be no doubt or confusion about the dharma we ought to follow. We are all steeped in the dharma that our great men have pursued from generation to generation. They have inwardly realized eternal beatitude.

Great indeed were the misfortunes suffered by Sri Rama during his exile in the forest. To a son going on a long journey the mother gives food to take with him. Kausalya does the same when her son Rama leaves for the forest, but she does so after much thought. Kausalya gives Rama the eternal sustenance of dharma. "Raghav," she says to him, "it is dharma alone that will protect you, and this dharma is what you yourself protect with courage and steadfastness." It is the escort of dharma that the mother provides her son sent out from his kingdom.

#chandrasekharendrasaraswathi #hindudharma #spirituality

नादत्ते कश्यचित् पापं न चैव सूकृतं विमुः-- God never rewards the virtuous nor punishes the wicked. -- Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 5, 15.

The law of causation, or law of Karma includes the law that the like produces the like, or that every action must be followed by a reaction of similar nature. If I strike a blow on the table, the table will react upon me with similar force. If I strike harder, I shall receive harder blow in return.

In the chain of cause and effect, it can be shown that each effect is latent in the cause and each cause is latent in the effect.

We do not have to blame our parents for our misery and sufferings. It is our own Karma that produces its results in the form of joy or sorrow, pleasure or pain, happiness or unhappiness. It is compensation.

Everything that we possess in this life is the effect of our previous Karma or action, both mental and physical. Our present character is the resultant of our past and our future will be determined by our present acts. Neither God nor Satan is responsible for our pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Thus, all the inequalities and diversities of characters can be scientifically explained by this law of Karma. In the face of this universal law of Karma, there is no room for the hypothesis of predestination and grace which is accepted by the majority of orthodox Christians. The hypothesis of predestination and grace teaches that God, the Creator of all, settles the destiny of man before his birth. He pre­ordains before the birth of each man and woman what he or she will be in future. The whim of the Creator makes one sinful or virtuous, before the time of one's birth. But this hypothesis destroys our moral responsibility and personal freedom.

He who obeys the law of Karma is more moral and more virtuous than one who blindly obeys the Ten Commandments. He stands on a more rational ground than one who fears the punishment of God. He shrinks from doing anything wrong, not because it is written in a book or scripture, but because he knows that every wrong action will sooner or later react upon himself and will make him unhappy and miserable. He performs good deeds for the reason that they will bring good reaction in the form of happiness, peace, tranquillity and higher enlightenment.

(..To be continued, 2nd of a seven part series).

#doctrineofkarma #spirituality #swamiabhedananda

My dear Gurudas,

Don't get discouraged or disheartened. Why should it be always sunshine and good times? Let Mother's will be done. Never mind sunshine or rain, we must not forget Mother at any time. Even if we don't see her, why should we lose heart? She appears again in our view. She knows what is best for us. Once we have given ourselves over to her, what right have we to think of ourselves again? It is not so easy to do as to say -- of that I am sure, but there is no other way out. Whether we see or don't see, Mother is our only place of rest. There are ups and downs in all hearts, but we should not give way to them.

Think not about yourself but only for others. That is renunciation, that is religion, that is all. Have you not given everything over to Mother? Why then think of yourself again? Never care for position. Give up all such ideas. Work is worship. Everything is in the life we live, not in position. Mother knows the heart and sees the heart and arranges things accordingly. Let your light so shine that everybody can see it. Let your work be silent and in secret and your Mother who sees in secret shall reward you openly.

Be strong! Don't give in to anything whatever. It is not good to be weak; the weak must go to the wall. This is the law of the world. But what you to do with the world anymore? Mother's child good or bad, weak or strong, you have no other to look up to but Mother! Others, who do not know, may think of temporal help. But you can never think that way, I am sure!

Pray for unflinching love and devotion and you will have everything.

There is no happiness in that which is finite; that which is finite is perishable. That which is universal is Blissfulness itself. [Chandogya Upanishad, VII.23.1, 24.1]

There is no world outside. It is what we project outside. But how difficult it is to understand this, and how much more difficult to remember it always, even after understanding it. we feel unhappy when we make ourselves small. We feel miserable when we think of ourselves as finite. That is the bane. Yet we forget and are in the whirlpool of Maya ever once again. But thanks to the grace of Mother, we remember it again soon. Know the universal! That is your real Self. May we never lose sight of this our real Self, which is the Self of all, our dear Mother, whose children we are.

#gurudas #lettersofswamituriyananda #mother #renunciation #spirituality

“If you have done something meritorious, you experience pleasure and happiness; if wrong things, suffering. A happy or unhappy life is your own creation. Nobody else is responsible. If you remember this, you won’t find fault with anybody. You are your own best friend as well as your worst enemy.”
― Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras

#quote #spiritual

We know that we don’t have permanent relationship with this world. We all acknowledge this truth and yet do not remember it. If we do not get attached we can experience an unspeakable joy this very moment.

We can remain without attachment in this world but not without detachment. When we are in deep sleep we are oblivious to our relationships in the waking world. The equanimity that prevails then is more that what we get by our associations in our waking state.

It is in our nature to sleep. In deep sleep we forget the waking world. We are strained if we spend even 24h continuously attached to worldly ties (attachment has been used purposefully). The replenishment that we get from worldly ties is not greater that what we get by sound sleep.

We are used to taking regular sleep from birth but we cultivate attachment while growing up. Attachment to toys, games, later money… in all these stages sleep remains dear. After marriage we develop attachment towards family. Some become monk. All enjoy sleep equally and renounce all worldly tags in that state be it monk-ship or a family. We make elaborate preparation for getting comfortable sleep. Mattress, pillow, fan, noiseless environment! We relish in a lot of worldly activity but when we get sleepy we want to put all of them aside.

There is a saint’s poem -- “बैरिन हो गई निन्दरिया” – sleep has become an enemy! Because her desire is to stay in a trance remembering the lord. We are willing to give up, nay, call sleep an unwelcome guest, when we find the one true, constant, eternal relation! The fabricated attachments in this world is transient and it is destined to be severed.

In Gita -- “कर्मणयेवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन” – We have the rights to perform our duty not on the fruits thereof. And mind should not be inclined towards non-working either. With full attention, dexterity, we should do our duty. Why? Because the primary purpose of this human body is to be utilized in service not for sense indulgence. Human form is not merely its physical manifestation – it is the discrimination, Vivek! This supernatural power is bestowed on us to develop rightful detachment. By doing duty with discrimination we practice karma yoga and use it to our favor in developing detachment.

We must serve our family, our parents, this world, everyone – and yet stand aside! The peace that is there in identifying as the doer of such duty is less than the satisfaction and peace obtained by exercising discrimination to stay detached from such identification!

Reference: Hindi Magazine क्लयाण Year 87, volume 10. Article by Ramsukhdas ji titled “साधकों के प्रति” on page 15-18. The above article is a selectively edited much shorter translation of that article in English.

#kalyan #ramsukhdas #spiritual

Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true self. His search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true self. The true self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.

#happiness #love #realnature #spiritual #trueself

Epicurus on Happiness

• Make good Friends.
• Develop Self-sufficiency. Freedom.
• Have time to analyze, to  reflect. Be free of other's opinions.

Montaigne on Self-Esteem

• Be comfortable with your body as are animals. That is a wisdom to be learnt from animals.
• To be wise: Humility, modesty and acceptance of one's intellectual limitation.

Nietzsche on Hardship

• Our worries are vital clues telling us what is wrong with our lives and pointing the way to our ultimate improvement.
• Dare to take challenges in manner similar to climbing a mountain overcoming hurdles.
• That which does not kill me makes me stronger.

Seneca on Anger

• Pre-meditation on something uncomforting that might happen lessens the surprise and can help control the anger.
• Anger and frustration are irrational responses to setbacks and the only rational strategy is to stay calm about the fact that things do go wrong.

Socrates on Self-Confidence (Plato was his student)

• We should not be too swayed by the opinion of the others. Sheepish.
• Five distinct steps that anyone who wants to develop distinct thoughts should follow:

1. Look around for common statements that is stated to be common sense... like "Best jobs are the highly paid jobs"...
2. Look around for an exception.
3. If an exception is found then the statement is incorrect or at least imprecise.
4. Try to nuance the statement to take the exception in the account.
5. Continue this process... try to find exceptions to the common sense statement.

I had a nice dream today. I am writing about it. Unlike normally I remember my dreams and am mostly conscious that I am dreaming. I can choose to wake myself up from that dream. I hear the sounds around me even in my sleep and am aware that certain sounds are not the creation of my dream. Most of us would not have noticed that dreams that occur in a peaceful place with no sounds around us! Characters in such dreams do not speak. My dreams are mostly mute. Characters happen to communicate through thoughts but that is occasional, often they are not in sync. Today I saw divine Mother Sarda in my dream. And the first thought was that I want to serve her in some way, to please her in some way, and I sat near her feet. It was this thought that made me peaceful. I did not desire anything. I was happy to wait there. A sense of completeness and being at peace, accepting all.. was there. And I was aware that it is a dream. The emotions were very strong, I had to wake up.  Now I was thinking how I may continue to stay in that peaceful state? Answers were coming to me.

First visual was about serving my parents. Next I saw some friends. I thought about an orphanage we had visited sometime back. I tried going back to sleep and fall into that state again. I could not. It was about four o’clock and my sleep was over. I still tried - it was greed in my mind. As I tried falling asleep some random thought would start a new dream but I would wake up myself every ten minutes and try to fall asleep thinking about the joyful dream. I did not have success and finally I woke up at five o’clock.

There is something related to this topic that I may write here. I have the demerit of getting jealous. I still find difficulty in controlling this emotion. I had devised a remedy for it. When I felt jealous of a person I would deliberately force myself to do a good act to the person. It did not change things completely but it did prevent me from brooding over that person. Another observation I made is that i would get jealous of someone when I resent some action of theirs. Presently I have a different perspective. I understand that the permanent solution for me is to accept people around me as they are. All paths lead to the the same goal. Everyone wants to be happy and to give happiness to others. It is foolish to judge people. We cannot help anyone. We may only serve and in doing so we are helping only ourselves. We all have demerits but teachers say we are all essentially divine. Sometimes due to ignorance and limited knowledge we overlook this beautiful understanding. We can always choose to help each other progress on our individual journey.

Thank you for reading this, if you have a comment you are welcome to write it. Your views are most welcome.

#dreams #emotion #emotions #friends #ignorance #knowledge #mother #paths #peace #perspective #sarda #spiritual #teachers